AS OF today H1N1 vaccinations are being made available to persons between the ages of 6 months and 25 years of age not in high risk groups.
The decision to extend the immunisation programme to sectors of the population outside of the high risk groups – such as those with pre-established health conditions and hospital workers – was first announced on Monday by health Minister Christos Patsalides.
A 52-year-old man with a history of serious illness who died on Saturday night became the third death in the south of the island from H1N1.
In the north of the island a 51-year-old female who had been in hospital since December 6 died of H1N1 on Monday. This brings the total death toll from H1N1 on the island so far to 5, three in the south and two in the north.
The Minister of Education said there was no reason to close schools on account of the flu. He said he recognised that there has been an increase in H1N1 related cases in the island’s hospitals compared to the previous week but said that the Health Ministry had the situation under observation and control.
“There is the flu, we have never said that the flu doesn’t exist. It does. The Ministry of Education is in very close cooperation with the Ministry of Health. We believe that this phenomenon is within the bounds that have been predicted for it,” he said.
While not closing any schools on account of the H1N1 epidemic the Education Ministry has decided to let the teachers’ unions of each individual school, in cooperation with the parents’ committee, decide the precise timing and the exact form of the school holidays for Christmas.
Christos Patsalides, the Health Minister, said that immunisation would shortly start at old people’s homes; both of the residents there and also of the staff who work there.
There are currently three cases of H1N1 infection on the island deemed dangerously critical by the authorities. One is a 55-year-old man being treated in the intensive care unit of the general hospital in Nicosia.
The other two are in the intensive care unit of the general hospital in Limassol, one a 46-year -old Cypriot woman and the other one a 40-year-old foreign woman.
“We’re not allowed to inform people about specific cases, by law, unless they are close relatives.” said a medical representative of Nicosia general hospital when asked to comment on the specific case involved.
“There is a steady, step-by-step increase in the people who are coming to be immunised and this is something positive.” said Patsalides when asked to comment on the progression of H1N1 and the immunization programme.
